A graphic is a visual presentation made on some media, such as a computer display or paper. A graphic typically comprises various graphical elements which may include textual elements and non-textual elements. Examples, of non-textual elements include pictures, drawings, geometric shapes and so on. Examples of textual elements include letters, numbers, punctuation marks and so on.
It is not uncommon for one or more graphical elements to overlap and sometimes completely obscure other graphical elements in a graphic. For example, a rendering of an electronic document may have textual elements that are obscured by non-textual graphical elements (e.g., rectangles) that are placed over the textual elements to redact the text associated with the textual elements and prevent the text from being viewed when the document is rendered. Here, a user may run a software application to place non-textual elements, such as rectangles, over the text elements to obscure or hide the text from viewing. The user may save the document in a file which includes the textual elements and the non-textual elements. When the document is rendered from the file on a computer system, the textual elements are typically rendered followed by the non-textual elements. If overlaid in a same region, rendering the non-textual elements in this order causes the text to be obscured or hidden.